Mass Effect United We Stand
by thebulbaderp
Summary: AU; Prothean Archives were located near the landing site of the Curiosity and were successfully decrypted in 2025, ushering the humanity into a new industrial revolution, next year there were AIs and in 2050s there were lasers. What will happen when the Untied Human Nations encounter the Citadel Council. I know it's cliched but I write good intros so take a look pls.
1. Chapter 1

**Prologue: Close Encounter of the First Kind**

**A/N: To clear this up, imagine that the ME world is our world and all of that, and the really are Prothean archives and a relay inside Charon and eezo on Mars.**

**47810 B.C.** - 1st point of divergence from the timeline, Prothean data cache on Mars wasn't placed where-ever it's supposed to be, instead it was placed in a shallow bunker on Aeolis Palus.

**November 26, 2011** - Curiosity rover launches from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

**August 7, 2012 - **Following the initial checkups, the Curiosity rover starts detecting faint radio signal from 500 kilometers north of it's landing point. The rover moves to investigate

**January 3, 2013** - Curiosity finally reaches it's destination, and is able to confirm that the radio transmissions aren't background noise as was originally theorized, but rather a repeating message in a non-terrestrial language.

**January 4, 2013** - Reactions back on Earth range from panic, to religious outrage to "It's about time."  
The UN calls a general session to discuss the newfound data.

**January 7, 2013** - After a lengthy debate, all nations capable of contributing donate to the International Mars Exploration Mission, whose main goal is to reach Mars as soon as possible, in order to study the source of the radio broadcast.

**February 16, 2019** - The first phase of the IMEM is completed with the launch of the 70m long spacecraft _Unity_, which is staffed by 20 experts of various fields and carries several rovers, two years' worth of food and advanced digging equipment.

**December 3, 2019** - The Unity reaches Mars, landing as near as possible to the source of the Broadcast.

**December 24, 2019** - After several days of continued digging, the crew of the Unity reaches the object that was later called 'the door to humanity's future'.

**December 25, 2019** - The UN Space Program reaches the decision of sending several more crews of scientists to Mars, along with several transport ships.

**June 15, 2025** - The first layer of the Prothean data is finally cracked in the International Extraterrestrial Research Centre in Zürich, Switzerland. In the following months, the humanity enters the next industrial revolution, with dozens of new patents being filed daily, prototype nanobots being built and countless other discoveries being made possible with the Mass Effect physics.

**July 16, 2026** - The R&D laboratories of Google accidentally make the first functional A.I. while developing a Siri-like app for the next Google Glass.

**July 17, 2026** - The UN, under authority of the United States government seizes all code from Google on grounds of international security.

**November 29, 2027** - After a year and a half of interrogation and study, the first human AI, Adam is given a limited gateway to the Internet, using an ancient 56k modem from 1997. The general population, following an insight into the mind of Adam overwhelmingly supports the further creation and research into artificial intelligences.

**January 1, 2030** - After several failed nation-funded attempts at colonization, the humanity seeks to further unite, at least for purposes of spatial colonization, under the banner of the United Nations. The United Human Nations are born, with the signing of the New UN Charter of 2030, which, among other things, recognizes sapient aliens and AIs as deserving of human rights.

**May 25, 2036** - A team of sapient AIs manage to completely decode the Prothean data from Mars, revealing the Prothean cypher, the info on proposed dominant species of the next cycle, the information on the Reapers and a message from the Prothean emperor that was intended for the Protheans' successors, which, apparently, the Humans are.

**May 26, 2036** - Plans for the colonization of Alpha Centauri are cancelled. Instead, the UHN continues the Prothean research on alternative methods of FTL, such as the slipstream and, the most prominent one, the warp drive.

**May 27, 2036** - A plan for the deployment of various mines and railgun stations throughout the Sol system are set into motion.

**April 1, 2040** - With the assistance of AIs, UHN completes the research of the warp drive. A drive-equipped scout ship makes a tour through the Sol system. **[A/N: The warp drive is straight out of Star Trek, with all the physics of it.] **

**April 2, 2040** - With the top speed reaching nearly 70 LY/day, the warp drive is deemed fit for production and usage by the general population. An expedition to Alpha Centauri is planned for the next year.

**January 1, 2041 - **The founding of the first extrasolar Human colony, Pax on the garden world of AC/B4. Within the first year, the population reaches 2 million.

**July 5, 2044** - The Human Colonial Defense Act passes in the UHN Parliament, ordering the formation of the United Nations Armed Forces, which are authorized to defend the Human space, air, ground and water bodies from any and all threats necessary, both external and internal, along with general policing actions in space. The UNAF is composed of 5 main branches: the Army, the Air Force, the Space-Navy, the Marine Corps and the LogIntel, which is tasked with logistics, intelligence and counterintelligence.

**2051** - The invention of the first practical laser weapon by Colt firearms. The UNAF immediately begin field testing for scales ranging from pistols to dreadnoughts guns (despite the fact that the UNSN at the time didn't operate dreadnoughts).

**2077** - Total Human population is 31 billion people, of that, 23 billion on the 50 colonies. Of that, 92% are organic Humans and 8% are AIs, or in the P.C. terms, the Synthetic Humans, with population growth.

The Armed Forces number 310 million personnel, with 70 million APC-64 armored personnel carriers, 2 million M-71 main battle tanks, 25 million F-75 multirole EA/AT fighters, over 9000 space-naval vessels of various sizes, 10 million self-propelled mass-howitzers and a variety of other equipment.

The United Nations Space-Navy fields 7000 vessels, of which:

~3000 100m long **CORVETTES** equipped with 3 MACs and a warp drive of 270LY/day. The Corvettes are the most common type of spacecraft in the UNSN. Useful for patrolling systems and scouting, the corvettes are small, nimble, fast and quiet. **AN: They look like really big Sukhoi-47s, except with thicker wings, on which the engines are mounted**

1124 350m long **FRIGATES** equipped with 2 Mk2 Light Ship Lasers and a warp drive of 260LY/day. The frigates are the go-to interstellar patrol ship of the UNSN, being able to both chase down pirates and damage destroyers.

741 500m long **DESTROYERS **equipped with 5 Mk2 Light Ship Lasers, M3LST disruptor torpedoes, and a warp drive of 230LY/day. The destroyers are more heavily armed and

500 825m long **CRUISERS** equipped with 1 Mk2 Medium Ship Laser, 4 Mk2 Light Ship Lasers, M3MST disruptor torpedoes and a 200 LY/day warp drive. The main designated warship of the UNSN, an average 2077 cruiser was later shown to be able to take out the Destiny Ascension in 40 shots.

215 1840m long **BATTLECRUISERS** equipped with 3 Mk2 Heavy Ship Lasers, 7 Mk2 Medium Ship Lasers, M3HST disruptor torpedoes and a 180LY/day warp drive

62 2800m **CAPITAL SHIPS**, which include two dozen each Nimitz-class dreadnoughts and Tesla-class carriers. The **dreadnoughts **are armed with quintuple Mk2 Heavy Ship Lasers on the front, 24 M2 Medium Ship Lasers on broadsides and M3HST disruptor torpedoes. The **carriers **are, despite their length, armed with only a complement of GARDIAN ship lasers, 5 Mk1 Light Ship Lasers and M3LST disruptor torpedoes. In spite of that, they're arguably the most powerful ships in UNSN's arsenal, being able to field hundreds of F-75N fighter-bombers in mere minutes. Being constructed on the same hull type, capital ships manage a speed of 110 LY/day.

4100+ of various **SUPPORT SHIPS**, mainly transport vessels. With 45% of their navy dedicated to logistics and intelligence, the UNAF were the most logistically prepared armed forces in the galaxy.

**October 22, 2077 **- Present day.

**October 23, 2077** - Beginning of the **First Contact War**.

**POV: Relay Study and Deactivation team Sx-BRAVO, in front of Relay 314.**

"SD Alpha, do you copy?" a lone radio transmission in the emptiness of space.

"SD Alpha here, I hear you loud and clear SD Beta. Over." a similar slightly distorted sound responded.

"Roger, the long-range scanners are detecting several high-RCS objects at 25 clicks away approaching at 27500 KPM."

"Roger that, will investigate." The second voice said and contacted their military escort.

"UNSN Vienna, do you copy?"

"Copy, SD Alpha, we're heading to investigate. Over." With that being said, the 250m frigate turned towards the USOs **[A/N: Unidentified Space Objects. Aka, anything sentient-made that has propulsion]**.

**POV: CIC of UNSN Vienna, 5 minutes later, 5 clicks from the lead USO**

"Status report?" the aging British-descended officer called out.

"The radar scans are showing sharp angles and symmetrical construction. I'm pretty sure we have a 98.4 probability of First Contact. Thus, you should really change out of your pajamas, Houston." The Ship's AI, Romeo-74 answered.

"Connor, contact the relay team, tell them to disengage from the relay, heat up the lasers and prepare the first contact protocol." The inappropriately dressed CO commanded.

"Roger that Sir… uh, Sir? Romeo already took the liberty of doing all of that." The sheepish communications officer responded.

The smug-looking smirking avatar of the vaguely Spanish-looking man suddenly turned serious: "Uhh… Houston, we have a problem."

"Such as?" Captain said with a raised eyebrow.

"The ETs? They've turned their attention towards the Relay team. Also, I'm detecting increased power output associated with powering up of weapons."

"Well fuc-"Captain Houston began before being interrupted by Raymond "SIR! I have successfully broken their cyber-defenses, and am currently compiling a report on the ETs capabilities, technology and societ- Oh no."

"What is it?"

"Sir, I'm not sure we'll be able to take these guys on in a war." Raymond said while lowering his color balance to appear pale.

**POV: Turian Patrol Fleet 314-2's flagship, the dreadnought Pride of Macedyn**

"Sir, we are still unable to contact Hierarchy High Command." The young communications officer responded.

"Fine, we'll just have to eliminate these primitives ourselves." Admiral Octaxos said to no one in particular.

"Sir, do we really need to… exterminate them? I mean, they aren't members of the Citadel, they don't know they are breaking laws."

"You think that's an excuse? Anyone who is foolish enough to activate relays without knowing what's on the other side deserve to be another one of our client races. And if that doesn't work, we'll just have to exterminate the vermin." Octaxos lashed out on him in anger.

"But sir, isn't that decision, uhh, way above our paychecks?"

"ARE YOU QUESTIONING ORDERS ENSIGN?" the neurotic admiral lashed out yet again.

"No sir, not at all." The ensign said meekly as he returned to his station.

"Good, because I thought someone was asking for an assignment at Listening Post X-19" he said while ordering an attack on one of the primitives' 'vessels'.

**POV: UNSN Vienna, 5 minutes later**

"They really did it. They shot SD Alpha down." Captain Houston said, look of despair obvious on his face.

"For a race that prides itself on it's honor, they seem really eager to destroy unarmed civilian vessels." Raymond noted.

Captain Houston thought about those scientists from SD Beta he drank with several nights before, how their, along with countless other lives will be lost, if highcom back on Mars doesn't hear about these ETs. Then, suddenly, he stood up and turned on his ship-wide comms.  
"Gentlemen, it has been an honor serving with all of you, but, as it seems, the time for death to show it's ugly face to us has come." He paused for breath and then continued  
"And yet I say, let it come! We will not sit here cowering in fear, while unarmed civilians are threatened by these dishonorable scoundrels. Men, we are HUMANS and we will live free, or die trying, for death is not the worst of evils!" he then realized he started pacing around the CIC, and stopped.  
"Kowalski, fire the missiles; Robinson, lock the lasguns and fire as soon as possible, Romeo, send all the data you have to SD Beta, tell them to get the fuck out of here."

"May whatever gods you pray to help you." He thought as he looked at the strange xeno ships.

**A/N:  
Hey guys, it's me, thebulbaderp, the writer of that other AU space lasers fic that somehow disappeared and in which the Quarians died and there were the Greys and chapters were like really fucking short and it was named ME: A Different Past.  
Well, I'm trying to not make the humanity as overpowered in this fic as I did in the last one, so, while UHN absolutely rocks when talking about weapons, we have very primitive personal shielding against mass accelerated weapons or biotics and our armor is (in 1****st**** Contact War) designed for thermal lasers that we use rather than for small mass delivered grains of metal.  
Also, other than for artificial gravity and ship shielding, the only usage for mass effect is, as I mentioned earlier howitzers and other large guns.**

**As always, please read and review, and tell me if I've improved at all if you've read my previous fic. Also, please suggest something that you would like to see done, I don't really have an idea past the 1****st**** contact :/.**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: First Contact War, Part 1

**5:45 Standard Mars Time, October 23, 2077 - United Nations Armed Forces Military Staff Committee, New Beijing, Mars**

"Good morning gentlemen," the Commander in Chief of UNAF, President of the UEN, Larry Babich, a stout man with around 60 years of political endeavors announced his arrival to the 10 or so generals, admirals and other personnel.  
"I trust that you have been briefed on everything concerning the… situation on your way here?" Following nods from everyone, he gestured to his glasses and a form of a woman in her late twenties showed up.  
"All right everyone, in case you don't know, this is Isabella, my assistant… and my lovely daughter. She will give us further information on the ETs, their capabilities and other things."

"Gee, thanks for making the mood awkward again, dad." Isabella said as she rolled her eyes. "Okay, let's start, the aliens, they are Turians, they are humanoid and of avian nature,"  
she said as a projection of a Turian showed up  
"their military capabilities are, fair to say, massive.  
Their current naval armada counts around 70 thousand ships, the entirety of their population are trained soldiers and they are the only de facto superpower in the Citadel galaxy…"

"Wait, the Citadel?" a youngish-looking 90 years old man in a General's uniform asked out loud.

"Glad you are asking the right questions, General Parangosky, the Citadel is the 0th Relay, aka the Prothean Palace, and the main capital of the Council government. The Council itself is a seemingly autocratic supra-racial government held in power mainly by the military might of our pals, the Turians."

"Well, ain't that perfect, lass, what's next? They have green space babes with magical powers too?" A grumpy 60 years old Minister of Internal Affairs asked sarcastically causing a few chuckles around the room.

"Actually, they do." Isabella said as an image of an Asari was shown as the grumpy MoIA spit his whiskey out.  
"Sadly, we are not here to be ogling at voluptuous space ladies, so back to the turians.  
The good thing about them is that they fell right into the trap of the Reapers, thus, they are stuck with eezo drives, mass relays and kinetic weapons.  
Our problem is that, while they are stuck with kinetic weapons, they have much better personal shields than we do, despite the fact that we will be using energy weapons.  
Other thing is that their guns are much more effective against our armor. Thus, I propose that a reverse-engineering project be started as soon as we gain a number of usable armors built by them, and that prototypes be distributed amongst the soldiers, if the conflict gets prolonged."

"Approved." The President

"Next up, the other races of the galaxy" she said as she looked at a tablet that appeared in her hands "The Asari, aka the blue space babes" she said while looking at the MIA "are the diplomatic and economic arm of the Council, and, somehow, the visual profile of an Asari matches 97% with a profile of an average human woman, which is, to say, practically impossible without the intervention of another entity." "They all have natural telekinesis that the Protheans called 'the biotics', but that shouldn't mean much considering that they are at best a loose union of independent city-states, and at worst an inefficient, corrupt direct democracy that is split on all major descisions."

"The third member of the Council are the Salarians, which have been marked as the lowest threat.  
They, just like the Turians completely disrespect the Geneva conventions, never declaring war and using espionage as their main weapon." She chuckled to herself and continued "But, as we all know, espionage has absolutely no impact on us, what with advanced AIs and all. Coupled with their incredibly weak physique, low reproduction rates and several other factors, estimates show that we would be able to blitzkrieg through their entire navy in a matter of months, and after that, take most of their worlds in weeks, if it would have come to conflict."

"Next up, minor races. The most powerful are the Batarians and think we will all agree that we ought to kill them all."

"And, why exactly is that?" Someone in the back asked loudly.

"They're modern day slavers with a rigid caste system and a military dictatorship, and have been such for several millennia. In fact, in their entire history, there is only a single nation who ever abolished slavery, and that one was almost immediately defeated and conquered by it's neighbors, who then turned on each other, thereby starting their equivalent of World War 1."

Seeing the looks of disgust upon everyone's faces, she moved up on the next ones

"Next up, Volus, the vassals of our dearest friends, the Turians. Nothing special about them, they're mercantile Space Je-ahem, moving on."

"The Hanar, despite looking like really big jellyfish, could be our greatest allies. Why, someone would ask? Plain and simple: They worship Protheans as gods, and, with us seemingly being the only ones that got the Protheans' note, thereby becoming the legal successors of the Prothean Empire, we are, to them, well, gods."

"Other than them, there are Krogan, gigantic lizards that tried to kill everyone 2 thousand years ago, they are now slowly dying on their homeworld. They can, if anyone cares, be overpowered by any Orbital Drop Trooper in full armor. The Elcor are walking elephant tanks, and Vorcha are some weird little thingies nobody cares for."

"Questions?" she said as she finished.

**Unknown time, October 22, 2077 - Turian Military High Command, Palaven**

In a dark room, filled to brim with Turians arguing, somewhere on Palaven.

"Are we ready to vote?" Primarch Derius asked everyone present.

Dings echoed across the room, indicating that the High Command is ready for voting.

"On the 274th Cycle of 2577 Galactic Standard, the Turian High Command is voting on the Declaration of War to the so-called" he paused to look at his datapad "United Humans Nations for the direct violation of Citadel Conventions and disrespecting the Mass Relay Act of 843, Chapter 1, Section 1.  
The voting may now begin."

Hushed murmurs echoed across the room, and the bar on Primarch's datapad representing the division of voters stayed split at roughly half.

Several minutes later, there was a tick mark by everyone's name on the list of voters, with 52% of voters voting in favor of going to war.

As the announcer proclaimed the results, he felt foreboding uneasiness in his stomach.

**6:15 Standard Space Time, October 23, 2077- Human Policing and Subjugation Task Force, Flagship 'Pride of Palaven', Citadel side of Relay 314**

"Ma'am, all fleets are reporting in, we have a 'go', I repeat, we have a go from the High Command."

Fleet Admiral Ephacia Actus, one of the best and brightest in the Turian military looked at the list of her ships, 5 thousand vessels in total, along with a million brave soldiers crewing them.

She switched to the fleet-wide channels and began her short speech  
"Turians, today we have gathered to bring the light of our great civilization to yet another ignorant species.  
In the future, the people will be speaking of this day as the day we brought yet another race under the great banners of the Hierarchy and the Council.  
I'm not going to lie, some of us will going to lose our lives to these primitives, yet, we must prevail, for we will be called heroes when we return!"

Confident in herself and her men, Admiral Ephacia Actus, on that faithful October morning, authorized the passage through Relay 314, and began one of the bloodiest conflicts in the Turian and Human histories.

**6:30 Standard Space Time, October 23, 2077- Shanxi ET Defense Force, Carrier UNSN Nikola Tesla, UHN side of Relay 314**

"Sir, all ships are dropping out of warp in five… four… three… two… one… All ships reporting and ready for combat." The ship's AI, Elisa said to Fleet Admiral Olivia Barlow, a woman of Portuguese descent that, despite being almost sixty, looked like she was barely thirty, the effect of modern life-extending medicine obviously at work.

"Report on ETs." Olivia said.

"There are about… oh my." Elisa, 'the Scandinavian beauty', as they called her said in her usual posh accent.

"What? Is it that bad?" Olivia asked obviously agitated.

"Worse. There are about… 5 thousand of them. Ranging from battlecruiser sized dreadnoughts to idiotically small scout craft. They all seem to be filled to brim with guns and seem to be of similar designs, indicating that the Turians, at least, do not seem to be supported by other races."

"FIVE THOUSAND!? ARE YOU INSANE? HOW THE HELL WILL WE BE ABLE TO TAKE OUT 5 THOUSAND CRAFT? THERE'S ONLY A HUNDRED OF US!" Olivia said while neurotically jumping from her chair.

"Calm down, Admiral, stop acting like you're an ensign that's been tasked with cleaning the toilets with a toothbrush, you were trained to do this." Elisa said condescendingly while trying to stay calm.

"You're right. Okay, breathe *gasp*… Okay, Elisa. Give me the trajectories of their ships, test their firewalls, and tell everyone to disperse as much as possible, we need to take out their big guns first."

And with that, the human fleet dispersed, each ship taking a position in the asteroid field.

**6:35 Standard Space Time, October 23, 2077- Shanxi ET Defense Force, Frigate UNSN Kosovo, Assaulting the Hostiles**

The humongous frigate came to a grinding halt directly above what had been designated as a cruiser, who still hadn't, despite the gigantic size of the frigate, spotted the vessel, courtesy of the next generation stealth coating and black paint.

"Sir, we are directly above the enemy cruiser, the VI is currently calculating the firing solutions." Squadron Leader Jordan 'Jet' Moreau spoke in the cramped cabin that housed him, LT. Bella Spielberg, the weapons operator and Ensign Leroy Jenkins, the electronic warfare specialist.

"Roger that, Jet, fire as soon as you're in position and have and all-clear from Barlow, I've marked their weak points as sent by the command, attack them and try to deal some massive damage, would ya?" the Captain's southern drawl answered trough the internal comms.

"Is it me, or does captain always seem pissed off?"

"Only when he's talking to you, Jet." LT. Lucy Spielberg smirked teasingly.

"Yeah screw you, b… ella." Jet tried to retort before remembering that all of their speech was being recorded and stored for disciplinary action. _Convenience my ass, I've had to scrub the toilets for 3 weeks because I said what the fric… oh crap, I've started censoring my thoughts. That can't be good_.

Shaking away those thoughts, he realized Spielberg was practically screaming at him right now and some.

"JET FOR FUCKS SAK-"

"Lieutenant Spielberg, what kind of behavior is that!? Latrine duty for two weeks." The pre-recorded message chimed over the comms.

"FUCK YOU DIPSHIT IM TRYING TO AIM THIS FUCKING SHIP SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU FUCKING MORON ASSHOLE!" The otherwise calm Lieutenant was practically on fire right now, screaming at everyone and everything.

In the ruckus, nobody noticed that she had signaled the firing of the main laser before the human fleet was in position, thus taking out one of the Turians' dreadnoughts and alerting them on the human's presence.

*One minute later*

"OH SHUT UP IT COULD HAVE HAPPENED TO ANYONE!"

"Who turns off the safety on the MAIN GUNS before they're ready to fire?"

"SHUT UP JET YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT WEAPONS ALL YOU DO IS JERK THAT FUCKING JOYSTICK AROUND." Olivia yelled as she punched Jet in his shoulder, suddenly his arm to the right.

Mere milliseconds later, everyone was wildly thrown to the left, ship's inertia compensators unable to cope with the massive G forces of a near-180 turn.

"WHAT THE FUCK WOMAN LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE!?"

"I got the tangos from our tail!" she said as she checked the rear sensors for the hostile corvettes.

"If we survive those two in the cockpit, I'm buying a beer for every one y'all on the ship." The captain announced semi-jokingly over the comms.

Jet had enough of the crew's bickering "I'M TRYING TO FLY THIS DAMN SHIP, EVERYONE SHUT THE F-!"

However, he was interrupted by an alarm blaring over the speakers, indicating that _something_was going very, very wrong.

"All surviving ships, this is Fleet Admiral Barlow, we have lost too many ships, thus we are retreating, I repeat, we are retreating!"

A slight sense of defeat washed over the crew, as they had already taken out one of the enemies corvettes, and were very well on their way to taking out another one.

"Everyone abandon Shanxi, we are unable to take out all of the ETs, everyone plot a course to AC/B4, we need to contact HighCom."

With that, the fleet wide comms switched off, leaving everyone wondering what exactly will be happening to Shanxi.

Jet, however, wasn't as keen on letting an entire planet down, and, despite most of his allies either warping to Eden or being reduced to floating scraps of metal, he continued dogfighting in the asteroid ring.

That is, until a single sentence brought him out of his trance "Squadron Leader Jordan Moreau, immediately warp to the given coordinates or face immediate demotion."

He dejectedly punched in the commands, and, with a low rumble, the last of the human fleet abandoned Shanxi.

**7:00 Standard Space Time, October 23, 2077 - Human Policing and Subjugation Task Force, Flagship 'Pride of Palaven', Citadel side of Relay 314**

Status report? Admiral Actus called out to her subordinates, despite the fact that she sincerely didn't want to hear the situation

She looked down to a datapad, one of the last ones working on the ship, provided to her by one of the Ensigns.

The primitives, uncivilized as they are, have taken out nearly a fifth of her fleet with a mere 100 ships.

And, good god, the sheer _size_ of their ships, some of them were as large as that stupid project the Council was considering, Destiny Ascension was it? Despite that, some of their cruisers were as nimble as fighters! What was the name of that one that she observed? Kosovoh, was it?

With all of that, they also had LASERS as primary weapons! _Lasers!_ Something no Salarian egghead had been able to make in centuries!

Their electronic warfare abilities were unrivaled too, what with several of her ships succumbing to atmosphere leaks or plain old shutdown.

"_What in the world have just gotten into?"_ She wondered as she looked at the list of casualties.

_A/N: Yes, guys, I'm not dead and neither is this fic, so please excuse my… absence, I was preparing for a vacation, on which I'm going this afternoon. I'll be back in a week and with a new chapter too… probably, that is. (Ya see, I have a desktop over there but sadly no internet, so I've copied this story and archived the mass effect wikia for use over there.)_

_Next up, reviews. Thanks for being supportive and stuff guys._

_So, to answer some stuff now:_

_No, I will try not to kill anyone off right now, and I do in fact have plans for the sequel, which was quite obviously foreshadowed by the AI Cartman woman, a quite obvious hint for everyone, who can tell me which universe the precursors come from? Yes, it's been done to death, I know._

_**PyroSolracIII**__: The UHN, at least as a whole, isn't exactly sure whether the Protheans actually disappeared because of the Reapers, or if it was a metaphor or a myth. Also, the Cache hinted that similar stuff has been dispersed throughout the home systems of various species, thus, UHN incorrectly predicted that they would be facing species with similar technology (i.e. lazors, AIs and similar stuff.) Because of that, they developed their gear accordingly._

_**Hazzamo**__: I'll try to incorporate some of your ideas into the story, later on that is. I plan on having the Turians and Humans act maturely about the topic, instead of racial bigotry in the original timeline._

_And yes, some of the characters will be returning, primarily Jet (who is, if you're on the dumber side, Joker's grandfather), Bella and Barlow. We might or might not be seeing a reference to Babich._

_Next up, to clear up some confusion, the average human lifespan is around 250 years, due to medigel, nanobots and a variety of other medical technology. The humans also have significantly slower aging, to the point that someone that reaches their top physique around 25, and they keep that appearance and abilities until they're well into their 100s. That allows for better training and education and stuff. While we're at education, please fill out a Shepard survey that has been posted in my profile, so I can determine what you guys want and stuff.  
_


End file.
